China’s military-civil fusion strategy remains active despite a public retreat from discussing it in bilateral talks with the United States, according to multiple sources familiar with recent diplomatic exchanges. In late 2023 and early 2024, U.S. Officials repeatedly raised concerns about China’s integration of civilian and military technological development during working-level and senior dialogues, including the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the Defense Policy Coordination Talks. Chinese counterparts consistently avoided direct engagement on the topic, shifting conversations to trade, climate cooperation, or regional security instead. This pattern of deflection coincided with internal Chinese Communist Party directives issued in late 2023 that instructed provincial officials and state-owned enterprise leaders to deepen military-civil fusion initiatives in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and advanced materials — while minimizing public references to the term itself. The shift in rhetoric followed heightened scrutiny from Washington, which began treating military-civil fusion as a core element of its China strategy in 2020, citing risks of dual-use technology transfer and intellectual property exploitation. In response, Beijing adjusted its public messaging but did not alter the underlying policy framework, which remains embedded in the 14th Five-Year Plan and the National Defense Science and Technology Industry Development Plan. Chinese state media outlets have since replaced explicit mentions of “military-civil fusion” with phrases like “integrated innovation,” “national strategic emerging industries,” and “defense-civilian coordination,” while continuing to fund joint research projects between defense institutes and commercial tech firms. Examples include collaborations between the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation and Huawei on 6G communications, and between the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation and CATL on battery energy density for military drones. U.S. Intelligence assessments reviewed by Congress in early 2024 concluded that China’s military-civil fusion efforts have accelerated in key sectors despite the diplomatic silence, with particular advances noted in hypersonic glide vehicles, AI-driven surveillance systems, and naval propulsion technologies — all areas where civilian research institutions contribute directly to military applications. Diplomatic channels between the two countries remain open on other fronts, including climate change, counternarcotics, and military-to-military communication mechanisms reestablished in mid-2024. However, no senior U.S. Official has reported receiving a substantive Chinese response to specific concerns about military-civil fusion since the summer of 2023. Beijing has not issued any official statement retracting or modifying its military-civil fusion policy. The last public endorsement came from President Xi Jinping in a 2022 speech to the Central Military Commission, where he described the strategy as “essential to building a world-class military.” No subsequent senior-level speech or policy document has contradicted that position.
Beijing Quietly Abandons Public Talk of Military-Civil Fusion as Tensions with U.S. Rise, but Strategy Continues Unabated
